The recent Social Mobility Action Group report on social mobility and Higher Education highlighted the importance of mature learners to social mobility. Mature learners are an important part of the UWL student body and, at the Institute for Teaching, Innovation and Learning (INSTIL), we are especially focussed on this group through the integrated foundation provision, which has nearly 200 mature learners. With this in mind I went to the NEON mature learners summit to learn more about what is being done across the sector to support these students.
The summit was a busy day and it would be impossible to provide a comprehensive account, but hopefully this brief overview will offer a flavour of what was an interesting and inspiring day.
The opening keynote was from the Head of Widening Access at Birkbeck University, Caroline McDonald. Birkbeck have a long history of catering for mature learners through part time and evening study. Caroline discussed how a drop in part time numbers has seen the University offer full time evening degrees for the first time, with the provision proving popular.
There were a few things in Caroline’s keynote that were particularly interesting. Firstly, she discussed how, at Birkbeck, students ‘pause’ their studies when faced with issues, rather than deferring or withdrawing. This does appear to be an interesting way of boosting retention, however, I would like to see how many of these ‘paused’ students resume their studies at a later date, and how these are dealt with in retention statistics.
Another interesting initiative at Birkbeck has been to focus on the family and support network of mature learners. These students may, in particular, be juggling family and care responsibilities in addition to their studies. Therefore, reaching out to the students’ wider support network makes sense in helping to boost retention (and possible recruitment!).
To this end, Birkbeck hold “family days” to help inform and enthuse this wider support network about the journey that the mature learner is going on. The support of this network cannot be taken for granted, and so these initiatives should have a big impact and are something we could explore at UWL.
At another talk at the summit, Kate Carruthers-Thomas, discussed her research into the sense of belonging of mature part-time students. This study had a particular focus on space, and how large parts of a university campus can feel excluding for mature and part time learners who only dip in and out of campus. This makes it particularly important to create spaces for these learners. Later on in the day there was a good discussion of ‘mature student common rooms’ which have had mixed fortunes at various institutions. There was also a discussion on the use of social media, such as Facebook, to create a sense of belonging, an area I have worked on previously.
The remainder of the day included a mature student panel, where we heard from two very different mature learners and their learning journeys. This was really interesting and timely reminder of the diversity amongst mature learners.
The day ended with the establishment of a new NEON mature learners working group, something that we will certainly be looking to engage with to carry on learning about the best ways to support the mature learners at UWL.
Author: Nick Pearce is Senior Lecturer (Integrated Foundation Provision) at the University of West London